PROMPT: Law

Posted on February 12, 2026 by B Gourley

Daily writing prompt

If you had the power to change one law, what would it be and why?

If such a situation were to avail itself, I would make a law so that no one person — even a high elected official — could change the law unilaterally. (Administrative policies for the bureaucracy not being laws, said high elected official could go to town on them.) Why? Because one person being able to change law is an affront to democracy and to the very concept of rule of law, and if we make it the object of fantasy to be able to do so we are cooked.

We had such a law in the US. It was called the Constitution, and it was glorious. It said that only the legislature (a body consisting of many representatives) could make law, and only the judiciary could interpret and evaluate the legality of a law. And it was okay that the executive was the least democratic of branches because it was to stay in the lane of enforcing the laws as they were written (and shaped by judicial interpretation,) and if the executive started getting too big for his britches, the legislature would turn off the flow of money.

So, my great fantasy is not to be able to unilaterally change law, but to have three functioning branches of government who stay in their own lanes, applying checks as (and only as) described in the Constitution.

PROMPT: Family Member

Posted on October 27, 2025 by B Gourley

Describe a family member.

When you are very young, he or she is very tall. As you get older, he or she becomes a manageable size, but tiny new one’s sprout up, and then you start to shrink and the tiny ones cease to be tiny and catch up and surpass one in height.

PROMPT: First Time

Posted on October 14, 2025 by B Gourley

What could you try for the first time?

My problem is that I’m old enough that all the low hanging fruit has been consumed, meaning most “first times” involve a serious time investment. For example, I’d love to go skydiving, but you can’t just jump out of a plane, you have to either watch a safety video or sabotage a plane. All for a five-minute experience. And if you don’t want to do it with a stranger strapped intimately close to you, you need to do probably watch several safety videos and practice pulling a cord over and over again. [Question: They sometimes ask if you’d like a male or female massage therapist when you get a massage, but I’ve never heard of being given the option when tandem skydiving. How come it’s ok to be homophobic, or hetero-phobic, in one instance, but not the other? Just asking.]

PROMPT: Personality Trait

Posted on September 9, 2025 by B Gourley

Daily writing prompt

What personality trait in people raises a red flag with you?

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Dogmatic thinking and the humor blindspots that correspond.

PROMPT: Habit

Posted on August 28, 2025 by B Gourley

Daily writing prompt

What daily habit do you do that improves your quality of life?

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I poop. Surely, I would have exploded in my youth if I hadn’t developed the habit. I feel my quality of life as a human must be better than the quality of life of gut bacteria in wall-spattered fecal matter. At least I have the leisure and capacity to contemplate such things.